‘Too good for this earth:' Memorial grows for Cambridge woman killed on bicycle

Monday

Jun 27, 2016 at 11:07 AMJun 29, 2016 at 10:08 AM

Amy Saltzman asaltzman@wickedlocal.com @cambridgechron

Just a day after a public meeting was held to discuss traffic and safety issues in Inman Square, a 27-year-old Cambridge woman died when her bike collided with a landscaping truck on Cambridge Street.

Amanda Phillips, an employee of Diesel Café in Somerville and a nursing student at MGH Institute of Health Professions, rode her bike off the sidewalk onto Cambridge Street near Antrim Street around 12:17 p.m. June 23, when she was struck by an open door of a Jeep and pushed into the travel lane where she collided with a moving dump truck, investigators said.

She was transported to Mass. General Hospital, where she was pronounced dead later that evening, according to Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan.

“Yesterday a tragic bicycle accident claimed an irreplaceable part of our collective hearts, as well as a person that was as genuine and kind as they come,” read a Diesel Café post on June 24. “It is with unbearably heavy hearts that we say goodbye to our dear friend and co-worker Amanda, who left this world too soon.”

Describing the tragedy as one of the “saddest times Diesel has ever experienced,” the café posted a photo of Phillips, thanking the community for the outpouring of love.

Several customers and friends reacted to Phillips’ death in the comment section, calling her a sweet, thoughtful and intelligent woman.

“I have been a daily customer for eight years, and she has been among the kindest people I've been lucky enough to see every day,” wrote Peter Wannemacher. “I am so sad and so sorry for her Diesel family and her loved ones. We will all miss her very much.”

(For more memorial photos, click here.)

Linda Sands, who lived in the same house as Phillips, said she will miss hearing Phillips walk down the stairs in the morning to walk her dog, “Scutchie.”

“Amanda always has that beautiful smile, always offering to help me with anything I may need,” wrote Sands. “I feel like she was just too good for this earth as this just can't have happened to such a beautiful young girl. My brother and his family and my husband and I are deeply crushed about her loss.”

Cambridge and State police closed a large section of the Inman Square intersection for more than four hours Thursday to reconstruct the collision near 1410 Cambridge St., leaving the Cambridge Landscaping Co. truck on scene for several hours, along with the bike and the red Jeep.

As of Monday afternoon, no charges had been announced related to the crash.

“It’s not clear if we can come up with a fix that would have prevented yesterday’s crash from occurring, but we’re definitely hoping to come up with solutions that make the area safer and simpler to navigate,” Joe Barr, director of the Traffic, Parking, and Transportation Department, told the Chronicle Friday afternoon.

(Editor's note: To read more about the investigation, traffic issues in Inman Square, and the public meeting held June 22, click here.)